Freddie replies to Harripaul on race and inferiority complex

Nov 17, 2013 Letters

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Dear Editor,
I refer to Malcolm Harripaul’s attitude to my column in his letter titled (“India’s space programme is an investment in the future,” KN, Nov. 13, 2013) He was responding to my pontification on the leadership of Brazil, China and India (see my Nov 10th article, “Some world leaders are heartless people.”)
Malcolm Harripaul is someone I have known for forty years now and is a friend. He is someone whose political integrity I respect. But friends do disagree and the young ones can learn from polemical exchanges of this kind. I refer to the three last lines in his letter which went like this; “I am proud to be of Indian origin so should you Freddie.”  I don’t see the philosophy in such a statement. There is nothing in my evolution as a Guyanese that would lead me to proud of any type of ethnicity.
I am devoid of ethnic consciousness not because of my growth in Guyana but because of my philosophical growth. I don’t see why I should be proud of my ethnic inherence because I do not have any ethnic/race consciousness in me. And I don’t see the ontological (as against the cultural and historical) purpose of any citizen being proud of their racial origin. Now I accept people’s attitude to their race and I see nothing wrong with Malcolm’s pride in being Indian. I also believe people have a congenital right to admire their racial origins but for me there are considerations I elevate higher than my racial birth

Love of country is one. I was born in Guyana and Guyana nurtured me. I will not turn my back on Guyana and I have no regrets being a Guyanese although I feel Guyanese have thrown away years of opportunities of being a great Caribbean country the way the world sees Barbados and Jamaica. I believe as part of the human race, I came into this world to help others irrespective of their race. Because of that philosophical conceptualization, I cannot make room in my soul for self-admiration of my genetic antecedents, nor am I fascinated of being a Guyanese. Honestly Malcolm, I don’t see these issues as being important in my life.
My life is dedicated to serve mankind and I do so with the same dedication and love in serving a white man, an African or an East Indian. Outside of that I have nothing but respect for other races and the race I was born into. As for India, it is one of the globe’s most fantastic nations, although I would not rate it as numero uno. It has a great culture which is strongly enduring. I would love to visit India. My wife did and loved it.
As with all other nations, India has some stomach churning negativities of which I would just list three, (1) unbearable poverty that has no ending, (2), an extraordinary fascination with white skin, and (3) a dangerous acceptance of political dynasty. I believe Jawaharlal Nehru’s great grandson will in the near future be the PM of India, making it four generations of a political dynasty that has ruled India. Indians should denounce these three blots that are extremely ugly.
As for Malcolm’s argument that “Freddie has unwittingly betrayed an inferiority complex by proposing that India should rely on the whites, who not so long ago had conquered, colonized, enslaved and decimated the peoples of the Americas, Africa Asia,” well what can I say? Malcolm, I am surprised and this is putting it mildly, that you don’t know the extent to which India, Asia and Africa copy from the white man. All of India’s major pharmaceuticals are naked remakes of discoveries by white American and white European scientists. China is the most barefaced stealer of the white man’s knowledge.
Malcolm, no other country in the world is in a rush to copy the white man than China. China has a replica of Manhattan, the Eiffel Tower, Venice, etc. The list is long. Malcolm, Bollywood scripts are barefaced stealing of Hollywood stories. Once a popular Hollywood hit is made, the Indian screen copies it. Get real Malcolm, you have an incisive mind, you must know by now that Indians from India dote on white people. All of Bollywood actors want to have white skin. You can hardly find an Indian who migrated to Guyana and married a dark-skinned Guyanese.
Finally, Malcolm, colonialism has damaged the psyche of the colonial world. The most sickening display of an inferiority complex comes from the Arab world. The Arabs love American and European cultures and would choose a white person any day over a non-white. I am going to stop here Malcolm because I know that you know which are races in this world that have the inferiority complex. I am off to see a Hollywood movie starring a globally popular actor that is darker that you, me and my editor, Adam Harris. His name is Wesley Snipes. Is there a Wesley Snipes on the Bollywood silver screen, Malcolm?
Frederick Kissoon         

 

 

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